Previous regimes to be blamed for mess: Govt

The BJP ruled State Government blamed its predecessors for creating mismanagement at all fronts in Jharkhand. Parliamentary Affairs Minster Saryu Roy leveled the charges in the Assembly while replying on ‘Demand for Grants’ on Tuesday. The Minister, when cornered for the inability to deal with law and order issues, naxal activities, large number of vacancies at key positions and poor state of affairs in public service by the Opposition members, termed the criticism unfair. 

“Most of the problems mentioned by the members have been created by previous Governments but we are being blamed for this. We feel that there has been a corrupt system and bad governance in place which has brought bad names to Jharkhand all over,” said Roy. Incidentally the admission has come at the time when the State for the first time in its history of 14-odd years got full majority Government. Nevertheless the saffron party has been partners in most of the coalition Governments in place previously.

At the same time the Minister counted on number of measures the Government is taking to bring things back on track.  “There are 1293 important posts required to run the administration efficiently but right now we have just 957 hands working. How can any Government implement its decisionsIJ We want to change the practice of last 14 years. We are bringing clear guideline for the officials so that implementation part is improved,” said the Minister.

He counted some of the measures which include reducing number of Departments from 43, responsibilities of officials would be redefined, and guidelines for executives would be revised. Roy, deviating from rhetoric on spending budgetary provisions, said that the Government would equally assess utilisation part and quality of the spending.

“Just spending is not an answer. We see lot of work with poor quality and budgetary provisions have to be made again and again for the similar works. We would at the same time ensure quality of the work being done,” said the Minister. On delivery front he reiterated that a brand new ‘State Development Council’ with participation from all quarters would be in place. Contingency Fund of the State has also been raised from current `150 crore to `500 crore. On law and order front, the Minister said that a separate Anti-terrorism squad, a unified command of security forces under the Chief Minister to deal with all kinds of crimes and activating Civil Services Board for transfer and posting of central officials posted in the State are in offing.

“Often allegations have been leveled regarding transfer and posting of the officials of all India civil services. We have made the Board which would look into the affairs and make recommendations. The system is also coming up against Naxals at places where they are more active. Now, a waiting room would be at all police stations for the common man coming. Crime investigation is also on our priority,” said Roy.

Earlier BJP MlA Radha Krishna Kishore expressed worry over number of cognizable offence which has taken a leap of 25000 in 2015 in comparison of year 2000 figures. He also underlined 28 vacancies of IPS officials and 177 of DSPs in the State where on every 600 persons there is one policeman. “Besides working on this front, we should also think about deploying unarmed aerial vehicle in heavily Naxal infested areas and carving out a highway patrolling force for the safety and security of commuters,” said the MlA.